Software protection scheme may boost new game sales

[Sunder]

Ok, so I finally bothered to read said article.  I assumed that they had
something interesting that made it look to the error correction code like
a scratch, etc... They don't.  No such weakness exists in error correction
used on CD's.

Their protection is no more than putting bad error correcting codes on
sectors, and when a CD copier is used, the "error" correction is
corrected, but the software can detect that this is a copy.  No different
than current game protection (no different than the commodore 64 days
either)...

The "new new thing" aspect of it is that the copied game continues to run,
making the guy doing the backup think he's got a good copy, but it slowly
degrades itself.  Degrade, but not in the sense of CD rot or scratches.

So for a few hours(?), it's playable, but then it starts to no longer
respond to user commands properly, and so it becomes a marketing tool.  
The luser will think it's worth buying their own copy after getting
addicted to the game.

So the rub, is that copies are allowed to be made, but unless cracked, the
copies are nothing more than time limited demos.

The only way that this could work is if they put up some sort of splash
screen at some point to let the luser know that the program isn't buggy,
but that the copy protection noticed it's a backup.  After all, if you get
a copy of a game from a friend, and it crashes on you all the time, would
you think it's because the copy is bad, or because the software is as
buggy as a Microsoft product?


As usual, the real loser is the original purchaser, because if he
scratches his CD, he's out $50-$70 or whatever games cost today, and he
can't make backups.


----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos---------------------------
 + ^ + :25Kliters anthrax, 38K liters botulinum toxin, 500 tons of   /|\
  \|/  :sarin, mustard and VX gas, mobile bio-weapons labs, nukular /\|/\
<--*-->:weapons.. Reasons for war on Iraq - GWB 2003-01-28 speech.  \/|\/
  /|\  :Found to date: 0.  Cost of war: $800,000,000,000 USD.        \|/
 + v + :           The look on Sadam's face - priceless!       
--------_sunder_ at _sunder_._net_------- http://www.sunder.net ------------

On 12 Oct 2003, Steve Furlong wrote:

> On Sat, 2003-10-11 at 15:55, Tim May wrote:
> 
> > As the saying goes, the lessons of the past are learned anew by each 
> > generation...
> 
> And each generation invents sex, too.